


Above All Else

by Requiem



Category: Original Work
Genre: Action/Adventure, Childhood Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Friends to Enemies, Science Fiction, Space Opera, Space Pirates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-01
Updated: 2020-07-01
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:49:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24582589
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Requiem/pseuds/Requiem
Summary: Kallis Everin, Astral Corps captain of the imperial frigateZenith, has sworn to protect and serve the empire above all else. But while on what should have been a relatively simple mission to hunt down a band of pirates, she runs into an old friend who makes her question everything from the last ten years.
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Female Character
Comments: 10
Kudos: 23
Collections: Fandom 5K 2020





	Above All Else

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skatzaa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/skatzaa/gifts).



> I loved your prompts and I had good fun mashing a few of them together. I hope you like it!

Delta Nine was a shithole. Kallis said as much to her lieutenant, Gerick Holland, who replied with his usual patience, "As we'd expected," which was as close as he'd ever get to "I told you so". Kallis had been trying to get him to loosen up for the last year, but so far, to no avail.

"Let's just get this over with as quickly as possible," she said.

"Right." Holland checked his communicator. "Your contact will meet you at Eternity, a club at the edge of the port. I sent you the directions just before we landed. I'm going to the warehouse district, building 1504."

"Alone? Maybe you should bring some backup." Looking around the docks, Kallis wondered if she should be bringing backup herself.

"I've got Jarreau keeping an eye on my transmitter; he'll get the crew together if anything goes wrong. Until then, I don't want to risk scaring my contact off. He sounded like he had some good intel."

"Alright, it's your call." Holland hadn't done anything yet to make Kallis doubt his judgement, and they'd been two steps behind this pirate they'd been tasked with arresting for nearly three months now. Any fresh intel that brought them closer to the end of the mission would be welcome.

-

The club was mostly a bust, Kallis' contact unable to give her a more definitive answer of where the pirate, Wayland, was hiding out other than supposedly having spotted his ship in the Eta Sector a week ago. By the time she returned to the berth where her ship _Zenith_ was docked, it'd been just under an hour since she'd parted ways with Holland.

"Any word from Holland?" Kallis asked as she joined her pilot, Lohan Jarreau, on the bridge.

"He's been pacing back and forth in front of this building for the last half hour." Jarreau nodded at the map he'd put up on one of his screens which showed buildings laid out in a grid pattern and a red dot moving back and forth along one of the paths. "Think his contact stood him up?"

The warehouse district wasn't far from here, just a short tram ride away from the docks. Kallis could be there in less than ten minutes. "I'm going to go check on him. I'll comm you if I see anything out of place."

The warehouses were too large for Kallis to be able to efficiently circle them before meeting up with Holland, so she decided to prioritise making sure all was well with her lieutenant before performing a perimeter check.

When she arrived at building 1504, Holland was still waiting outside with no one else in sight.

"Captain!" He started when he turned and saw her standing there. "What are you doing here?"

"Who's supposed to meet you here?" Kallis asked.

"Roth, a smuggler." Holland showed her a picture on his communicator. "Or he claims to work for one, at least. He says he's able to tell us where Wayland's base is."

"Sounds too good to be true."

All the contacts they'd previously met with claimed nobody knew where Wayland went to ground when he wasn't out in the cluster raiding cargo ships and luxury cruises.

"Well, he is asking for quite a large sum of credits. He's put forward a hundred thousand, but I'm going to try and negotiate it down to sixty."

It would usually be unheard of for Astral Corps personnel to be authorised to give out such large sums of money to criminal informants, but the emperor and empress had been adamant that everything had to be perfect for the centenary celebration of the empire, which meant no notorious gangs of pirates running wild in civilised space.

"You seem to have everything well in hand. I'm going to do a perimeter check."

No sooner had Kallis turned to start her patrol than a small group of people rounded the corner of the warehouse. They were all armed, as was nearly everyone else on Delta Nine, but they kept their weapons holstered and stayed a respectable distance away. One man stepped forward and crossed the space, stopping halfway towards Kallis and Holland. Kallis recognised him as the man Holland had just showed her a picture of.

"Lieutenant Holland?" he asked, looking expectantly at Holland.

"Roth, I take it?" Holland asked.

At the man's nod, Holland closed the gap and shook hands with him. Kallis kept a wary eye on the other smugglers, but none of them so much as twitched.

"You know," Holland said, "I thought this meeting was supposed to be a quiet one, but I see you've brought quite the party."

"And I see you've also brought backup of your own."

"Not backup, my commanding officer. Since I'll need her authorisation for any sum of credits that we agree on today, I thought I would bring her along to help speed up the process."

Kallis just barely caught herself in time to not raise her eyebrows in surprise; this might've been the first lie she'd ever heard come out of Holland's mouth.

"In that case, she might as well speak directly to _my_ boss. No need to play around with intermediaries here." Roth motioned for someone behind him to come forward. "This is Kas, our captain. She has the last say on all decisions."

As Holland stepped to the side to cede control of the meeting to Kallis, her gaze couldn't help but be drawn to the smugglers' captain. Kas was dressed in dark leather from head to toe, a sleek pulse pistol at her hip and a larger rifle slung across her back. Her short hair was an artificial dark red, with a matching red bandana pulled over her mouth and nose.

Kas' eyes seemed to widen slightly when she caught sight of Kallis, but she held her ground slightly in front of Roth. "Captain," she said shortly, nodding in acknowledgement.

Kallis squinted. Kas' voice was muffled by the bandana, but the voice wasn't important. Kallis knew those eyes.

"Princess?" she hazarded.

"Oh, shit." 'Kas' motioned for her people to move in, all of them showing a complete lack of surprise at the fact that their boss was the missing princess half of the Astral Corps had been in search of for the last six months.

Kallis instinctively drew her sidearm, and out of the corner of her eye she saw Holland do the same, but they were outnumbered at least three to one, and would have a distinct disadvantage in any ensuing firefight.

"Give it up, Kal." 'Kas' pulled her bandana down, confirming Kallis' suspicions that the person before her was in fact Princess Anaelin. "Even if you make it out of the warehouse district, my people will already have taken your ship by the time you get there. _Zenith_ , right? Docking bay 5, berth 18."

"If you do anything to my crew—"

"I wouldn't hurt them, Kal." Aelin looked offended. "You know me."

"I thought I did."

"I'm still me. Promise."

Aelin inclined her head, and two of the smugglers stepped forward to disarm Kallis and Holland and take their communicators. Kallis didn't put up a fight, and Holland followed her lead without protest, though he kept shooting her furtive looks that she didn't return.

"Come." Aelin began to walk away, looking over her shoulder until Kallis reluctantly fell into step with her, Holland on Kallis' other side.

"What are you going to do with us?" Kallis asked.

"I can't let you go now that you know where I am, so you're coming with me."

"And my crew?"

"Will not be harmed. I promise. You'll see each other soon."

A cloaked shuttle was waiting behind the warehouse for them. The windows were blacked out and the cockpit was separated from the rest of the shuttle by a solid partition, so Kallis had no idea where they were going. No one in the shuttle spoke throughout the entire journey, but the smugglers seemed at ease with the situation, as if this sort of thing happened all the time.

The shuttle docked directly inside a ship, so Kallis didn't even know which part of the port they were in when she and Holland were led out of the ship's shuttle bay.

They'd barely gone ten steps down an adjoining corridor when Holland's contact, Roth, opened a door and motioned for Kallis and Holland to go inside. A glance inside revealed it to be totally bare save for a metal bench bolted to the floor and a surveillance camera set into the ceiling.

"It's only until we get into hyperspace," Roth said. "Then we'll move you to more habitable quarters."

"We need to talk," Kallis said to Aelin.

"We will, once the ship's in hyperspace. Until then, I've got other things that need to be taken care of first. It'll be a few hours at most." Aelin nodded at the room. "Please don't make this difficult."

Kallis fixed Aelin with a stare. "Fine. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt for now, but if you leave me hanging for too long, things will get very difficult indeed."

"Understood."

Kallis entered the room, Holland close on her heels, then the smugglers shut the door behind them. There was a small window in the door, but Kallis couldn't watch them go down the corridor very far before they were out of her field of view.

"So that's Princess Anaelin?" Holland asked, lowering himself onto one end of the bench.

"Apparently."

"You've met her before?"

"We grew up together. Then I left to join the Astral Corps ten years ago, and we gradually lost contact. Too many long missions in deep space with no access to comm relays."

"She's been missing for a while now, hasn't she?"

"Just over six months."

Aelin had been betrothed to one Evander Jairus Temeuraner in an arranged marriage a year ago. Six months ago, the emperor and empress had dispatched a convoy to Mindar, where Aelin had been living since childhood, to retrieve her in preparation for the wedding, but she'd been nowhere to be found. She and her imperial guard had seemingly vanished off the face of the planet.

It had kept Kallis up several nights, thinking of what could have befallen her old friend, but if Aelin had run off to play pirate just to dodge a wedding of potentially galactic importance, Kallis wasn't in the mood to feel too sympathetic.

-

It was hard to measure the passing of time in the featureless room, but it had to be hours later when Aelin finally reappeared with two other smugglers.

"You wanted to talk?" she asked Kallis.

"Yes, let's."

While the two smugglers accompanied Holland elsewhere—supposedly to reunite with the crew of _Zenith_ —Aelin took Kallis not to an interrogation room or anything of the sort, but rather, through the maze of corridors and into an elevator where Aelin swiped the back of her hand over a scanner. After a short ride, the doors opened to reveal a large room with floor-to-ceiling windows directly facing the elevator doors, providing an expansive view of the glow outside as the ship sped through hyperspace.

"Your quarters?" Kallis asked.

"Make yourself comfortable." Aelin gestured at the collection of couches and armchairs in front of the windows as she shed her coat and hung it up.

To the left was a large bed raised on a platform, with a door next to it that likely led to a wardrobe or bathroom. To the right was a long desk bordered above and below by cupboards, two rolling chairs tucked into the gaps. Between the desk and the foyer-like space outside the elevator doors was a small kitchenette. The room seemed tidy at first glance, but closer inspection revealed the bed hadn't been properly made, the covers just loosely pulled up, and through the plexiglass doors of the cupboards above the desk, Kallis could see books, papers, and datapads haphazardly shoved in and stacked on top of each other. Some things never changed.

"I love your new look," Kallis said to get the conversation going when Aelin settled onto the couch opposite her.

"Thanks," Aelin said after a long pause. "I cut the hair when I first dropped off the grid, and dyed it a month later. You're the first person to recognise me in nearly four months."

"What happened to the other person?"

"We talked. I got them to come around."

"You got them to come around? What does that mean?"

"They work for me now."

"Doing what? Spying? Smuggling? Raiding imperial trading routes?"

Aelin shrugged non-committedly. "Whatever's needed."

"Don't expect to be able to turn me." They might have been old friends and Aelin might still be the princess if only in name, but Kallis' loyalty to the Corps and the empire was absolute.

Aelin shrugged again.

"What happened, Aelin?" Kallis said with a sigh. "We used to be friends. How did we drift so far apart?"

"You should have stayed with me on Mindar." Aelin looked out the window like she could see the planet from here. "We could've done this together."

Mindar. The name was enough to bring forth visions of warm afternoons on the banks of a clear stream that trickled down from the mountains overlooking the settlement.

"What is _this_ , exactly?" Kallis asked, shoving the memories aside.

"It'll be easier to show you. We're still a few hours out from our destination, but once we get there, I'll explain everything."

"Where are we going?"

"Somewhere the empire hasn't been able to find us yet."

"Kataris Verge?" Kallis threw out after a moment's thought. It was where _she_ would go if she didn't want to be found by the Astral Corps, but since no one had yet considered the princess had run away from Mindar to become a pirate, no one had asked Kallis for potential systems Aelin could be hiding in.

Aelin didn't reply, but Kallis saw the briefest flash of annoyance cross her face. Maybe they hadn't drifted so far apart after all.

"What's this all about?" Kallis asked. "Is it the engagement? I would've thought you'd be more mature than that."

"Putting aside the fact that the engagement was so last-minute I didn't even know who whatever-his-name-is was until my parents sent me the _file_ they had on him, and that the trend these days is to hyphenate—and you know how long my name already is—I've had this plan in the making for more than ten years."

Kallis had to admit that Princess Anaelin Kastel Vanyari Laeredrelin Celestia-Temeuraner just didn't have the same ring to it.

"That long?" she said instead of falling back into their usual banter. "Why didn't you tell me anything back on Mindar?"

"You were so set on joining the Astral Corps. You were so excited the day you got accepted into the academy that I didn't have the heart to break it to you that I was planning on doing the opposite of what it was you'd always dreamed of doing."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You'll understand later."

Aelin refused to answer any more of Kallis' questions beyond vague promises to explain at a later time, and Kallis eventually gave up trying to find a topic they could safely talk about.

"I want you to take me to my crew," she said.

"Fine. Let's go."

 _Zenith_ was crewed by a complement of thirty including Kallis and Holland, and they'd been put up in a suite consisting of five rooms attached to a central living area. All furniture was bolted to the floor or a wall, and the rooms were free of decorations and any removable objects that could be repurposed into a weapon; apparently, Aelin and her smugglers did this sort of thing often enough that they had purpose-built rooms on their ship for it.

"Is everyone alright?" Kallis asked Holland after making a sweep of the rooms.

"Yes, but no one can tell me exactly how the smugglers had been able to take over the ship so quickly. Apparently, one moment everything had been quiet, and the next, the crew had been surrounded."

"What about the ship's scanners?"

"Well, Jarreau had shut down _Zenith_ 's engines so engineering could do maintenance, which meant most of the sensors were offline to conserve power."

"Alright, it doesn't matter now. We'll properly debrief once we're out of here."

"Do you have a plan?" Holland looked warily around him. "We don't know if the cameras are video only."

"The plan right now is to sit tight." Kallis looked directly into the nearest surveillance camera. "Princess Anaelin is up to something, and I intend to find out what before I report back."

-

The smugglers came for Kallis and her crew not long after the ship touched down. They were herded through the cargo bay doors out to an enormous hangar large enough to fit the ship they'd just stepped off fifty times over, which in turn had been large enough to tow _Zenith_ through hyperspace. Tens of people scurried back and forth, engrossed in their work and not taking a second glance at the prisoners that had just been brought in.

"Come on, this way." Aelin waved them over towards a set of large doors at one end of the hangar that were gradually beginning to open. "There's no point in trying anything or making any plans for escape, because as you can see, you're grossly outnumbered, and every one of these people will see to it that you don't get out alive. Now, I don't want that, and I'm sure _you_ don't want that, so please just do as I say."

Kallis lengthened her strides to catch up with Aelin. "Princess, I—"

"Oh, enough of that." Aelin rolled her eyes. "The empire thing is getting rather old."

"It's served the cluster well enough for nearly a century."

"And now, it's time for a change."

Once Kallis' eyes had adjusted to the light coming through the opening doors of the hangar, she couldn't take them off the view in front of her.

It looked like a city was spread out before them, towering columns of glass and steel interwoven with paths and elevated walkways decorated with greenery that draped over railings and from rooftops. Kallis could have been convinced they'd landed on a planet if she hadn't looked up and seen the simulated sky: clouds drifted lazily overhead, but there was no depth to them, and the light seemed to come from all around rather than from a sun. So they were on a ship or station, but Kallis hadn't seen one built like this before.

"What is this?" she asked.

"This is over ten years of hard work is what it is." Aelin started down a flight of stairs to the right. "All terrestrial colonies within the borders of the empire are subject to imperial rule. Some people have tried to get around this by building space stations and asteroid colonies, but once the empire finds you, there's nowhere to run. But this…no one's ever done this before."

"And this is what, exactly?"

"A ship. _Deliverance_. We have more conventional shipboard quarters as well, but the bulk of our civilian population lives in places like this."

"How many?"

"Roughly twenty thousand."

"Twenty thousand?" It was nothing compared to the population of some space stations, but twenty thousand people gathered in one place for the sole purpose of evading imperial rule wasn't something to be laughed at.

"And another ten thousand or so military personnel," Aelin continued as they walked along a bridge above the city.

"You have thirty thousand people on this ship?"

"Give or take a few thousand, yes."

"And they all follow you?"

"Yes."

"What did you promise them?"

"This." Aelin spread her arms out. " _Deliverance_ became operational six years ago, and for those six years, the empire hasn't known we're here, hasn't tried to force us to follow their taxation rates, hasn't sent a convoy of spies to keep an eye on us and report our actions back to the court. Of course, not having access to imperial resources has meant we've had to get creative to establish supply routes, but it's nothing we haven't been able to handle."

"You're more willing to work with criminals than with the empire? Your own family?"

"Some of them aren't so bad. They're just trying to survive, same as everyone else. In fact, if you weigh them against each other…" Aelin held up her hands to mimic a scale. "The balance shifts back and forth, but most of the time…" Aelin moved her left hand so it was considerably lower than her right. "That's the empire. You must get around, being as important as you are. Tell me, do you see it? Are you really so blind, or do you see it and pretend you don't? Do you turn away and leave the mess for someone else to clean up?"

Kallis thought back to some of the missions she'd been assigned: dispersion of illegal colonies, rounding up criminals for re-education, bombing runs on terrorist bases…how many of those had just been everyday civilians trying to get out from under the thumb of the empire? Sure, she could believe that the Astral Corps made the occasional mistake, overstated the danger some of the targets posed, but…how many?

"Let me guess," Aelin said before Kallis could say anything, "mother sent you all out to purge the cluster of undesirables before the big centenary celebration to prove to the federation that humans are a competent space-faring race capable of maintaining control over its territory."

"The emperor gave the order, actually."

"Well, it was one or the other. My point is, it's not practical for a multi-system society to be run by a centralised government. Only a hundred years ago, we could barely agree on who should run Ingeron, and now we have just two people—and a cabinet that's mostly for show—making decisions for the entire cluster. The only way for the empire to ensure order is through espionage and force, which is neither ethical nor efficient. Changes need to be made, but to do that, we first need a solid base of operations."

Aelin led the group through a set of wide sliding doors into what looked like some kind of lobby. She stopped in the middle and turned to face them, a set of elevator doors behind her.

"You'll be staying here, on the sixteenth floor. Conroy"—she gestured at the front desk where a man was busily typing away at a terminal—"will issue you all keycards that will take you to that floor and this one only, and the cards have also been programmed with a list of locations that you're authorised to visit. You will be restricted to this zone of the ship to make it easier to keep an eye on you, but I think you'll find there's more than enough facilities here to keep you occupied. Since you won't be able to access your personal accounts for spending, a small allowance will also be loaded weekly onto your cards to be used at your discretion. Essentials such as food and clothing will be provided for, you only need to let Conroy know if you're running low on anything. Any questions?"

"Do you plan to keep us here forever?" Kallis asked.

"Not against your will, no. If you should eventually wish to join us, you will be welcome to do so, but otherwise, you and all our other prisoners will be free to go once certain conditions are met. And before you ask, I will discuss these conditions with you later. For now, get settled in. I have other things I need to take care of. I'll send for you when I'm ready."

Aelin swept through the crew, and they parted before her, moving out of the way almost unconsciously. Royalty had a way of making itself known, it seemed. It wouldn't be as easy to divorce herself from the empire as Aelin seemed to think it would be.

-

There were ten apartments on the floor, each with three bedrooms that were on the smaller side than what could usually be found planetside, but it was a luxury compared to the shared quarters on _Zenith_. Even the officers' quarters had been small and cramped, little more than a desk and bed with the privacy of four walls.

Two hours later, Aelin's messenger came to the apartment, knocking on all the doors until she found Kallis. She introduced herself as Chrissa, and looked to be fifteen or sixteen at most.

"Is this what you usually do around here?" Kallis asked as Chrissa led her not back out to the open-air city, but through a maze of corridors and stairwells away from the simulated daylight.

"I do whatever the captain needs me to."

"What about fighting?" Kallis couldn't help but notice that Chrissa held herself with military-worthy bearing and discipline that drill instructors spent months trying to hammer into recruits' brains.

"If she needs me to."

"You seem a little young for that."

"Maybe if the empire had taken more care when it was bombing supposed terrorists on Epsilon Five it wouldn't have killed my parents or destroyed my home, and I'd still be there now, studying terraforming techniques."

"She's the princess; you know that, right? Second daughter and third child of Emperor Vanyar and Empress Laeredrel?"

"She's the captain." Chrissa scanned her card at the door in front of them and held it open for Kallis. "We're here."

'Here' was an office-like space with a large U-shaped desk in the middle of the room, shelves covering three walls, and a map of the cluster being projected onto the empty fourth wall. Aelin was standing in front of the map, and spared Kallis barely a glance when she entered the room.

"We grow enough food to provide for over fifty percent of our needs, we can take on up to one hundred thousand passengers for emergency evacuation purposes, and we can outgun any pirates who try to take us on. The only real threat to _Deliverance_ is the empire." Aelin finally turned to look at Kallis. "I'm not looking to wage war, but I do need to be able to protect the people who join me. To do that, _Deliverance_ will need to be able to jump to hyperspace."

"But you can't do that without a star drive," Kallis said. "One bigger than any that's ever been built."

"And we've been trying to build one ourselves for over ten years, but it's been hard enough to gather the materials, let alone the skills and knowledge needed to build something so large and complex. Luckily for us, someone else has already developed such a star drive." Aelin gave Kallis a knowing grin.

"The Technocratic Guild?" The foremost inventors of starfaring tech, the guild's repository was said to be even more impenetrable than the most secret imperial military installation.

"Yes, but fortunately for us, we won't need to break into the Technocratic Repository. Someone else has already stolen the star drive while it was in transit between the repository and the testing site on Epsilon Seven."

"Who?"

"A pirate. You may know him as Wayland."

Understanding dawned on Kallis. "So when your man told my lieutenant he had information on Wayland…"

"We were hoping to send you after him as a distraction so we could steal the drive. Now, we can work together. It should make the heist even easier."

"What makes you think I'll work with you?"

"Well, you get Wayland, who I hear you've been after for a few months now, and we get the drive. Once we install the drive on _Deliverance_ , you get to go home, successful in your mission. We both win. Think about it. But not for too long, because we want to do this soon, before Wayland tries to unload the drive onto someone else or takes it apart for scrap. We've got replacements for you lined up and ready to go, but I'd rather have you, of course. The fact that we won't have to pay you aside, I do still trust you more than any other mercenary group or splinter faction we've worked with. Even after all this time."

Kallis didn't realise how long they'd been holding each other's gaze until Aelin looked away to move a datapad from the top of one stack to another.

"Think about it," she said again as the door to the office opened to reveal Chrissa waiting to take Kallis back to the apartment block.

-

Kallis resolved to get in a good night's sleep before discussing the proposal with anyone or making a decision, but that was taken out of her hands when everyone was rudely awakened early the next morning by alarms going off across the ship.

Most of the commotion outside seemed to be concentrated around the hangar, so naturally, that was where Kallis gravitated towards. The hangar door had been left wide open, the careful security from the previous day completely disregarded.

"Damn it, didn't you check the ship for trackers?" Aelin was berating a mechanic as she furiously checked something off on a datapad.

"What ship?" the harried mechanic exclaimed, working on his own datapad.

"What other imperial ship have we brought on board recently?"

"That one?" The mechanic jerked his thumb over his shoulder at _Zenith_. "Of course we checked! It was clean!"

"Then how did they find us?" Aelin hit the nearest bulkhead with the side of her fist, then activated her communicator. "Dispatch fighters and open fire from all batteries to distract the imperial force so our lifeboats can get away."

"You're evacuating?" Kallis asked. "What's going on?"

"There's an imperial cruiser on our doorstep, and two thirds of our residents are civilians. I'm not taking any chances. You should go too. Take your ship. There's not much point in keeping you here now that the Astral Corps apparently knows where I am."

"What about you?"

"I'm the captain." Aelin sounded almost offended. "They need me in the command centre."

-

Most of the crew was already on board _Zenith_ when Kallis made her way over, and Jarreau had the engines fired up and ready to go. Kallis took up her place in the captain's chair, Holland working at a terminal to her right, and ordered Jarreau to get them away from _Deliverance_.

"Straight to Ingeron, then?" he asked. "We'll have to stop over at Zeta Twelve to refuel since we're all the way out in the Verge, but it shouldn't—"

"No, we're not leaving yet. Bring us closer to the imperial cruiser and open a comm channel."

Holland looked over his shoulder with an alarm in his expression he couldn't quite suppress. "We're not going to help them take down _Deliverance_ , are we?"

"Does that worry you, Lieutenant?" In the year they'd worked together, Kallis hadn't heard him express so much as a hint of an opinion on anything political or remotely controversial. She would have thought he would hold his tongue until it came time to write the mission report.

"Well, they haven't really done anything worth responding to with violence."

"Just open the channel when we get close enough."

They didn't get _too_ close, just in case the cruiser didn't recognise them as also being an imperial ship. Jarreau stopped _Zenith_ just within communications range but well out of reach of the cruiser's guns.

"Unknown imperial cruiser, this is Captain Kallis Everin of the imperial frigate _Zenith_. Please respond."

"Captain Everin, this is Rear Admiral Kaslow of the _Aquila_. I have no record of you or your ship being present in this sector. Might I ask what you are doing here?"

"My crew and I have been tasked with hunting down a pirate, and our search has led us here."

"Well, your assistance would be appreciated, captain. If your pirate is here, we may both come out of this successfully."

"Of course, Admiral, but if I may, we have reason to believe that there are civilians on board that ship, and I respectfully suggest that we focus our fire on the attacking vessels only."

"Negative, Captain. I've got good intel that these insurgents are holding Princess Anaelin. I've sent breaching teams to extract her, and once they report success, we're to destroy everything and everyone in the area."

"Even the civilians?"

"Captain, I assure you, there are no civilians on board. And in the unlikely event that there are, a little collateral damage is a small price to pay to bring down such a large and heavily-armed force of insurgents. The orders came straight from the emperor himself, it's part of the big cleanup operation before the centenary celebrations."

"I see. Thank you, Admiral." Kallis muted the connection. "Jarreau, bring us in under the cruiser. Gunners, get ready to target the _Aquila_ 's engines and weapon systems, but don't fire until I give the order."

"Captain?" Holland asked.

"Like you said, Lieutenant, we have no proof of the princess or her people doing anything violent, and therefore, this is a wildly disproportionate reaction to a fairly harmless display of civil disobedience." Kallis unmuted the connection to the _Aquila_. "Admiral, I hate to speak out against a senior officer, but I believe your actions are unlawful and not in keeping with the spirit of the principles on which the empire was founded. Therefore, I must ask you to stand down, or I will be forced to open fire on your ship."

"Captain!" the admiral said sharply. "If you leave this sector now, I will strike those words from my memory and pursue it no further. Should you persist, I will have no choice but to declare you and your crew enemies of the state, and treat you as hostile."

Kallis closed the connection. "Gunners, fire when ready."

 _Zenith_ couldn't do much against the _Aquila_ 's might on her own, but she _was_ faster, more agile, and more heavily armed than any of the ships Aelin had under her command and could potentially help turn the tide of the battle.

"Lieutenant, open a channel to _Deliverance_ 's command centre." Kallis ordered. The moment the connection was made, she said, "Princess! Captain Everin of the frigate _Zenith_ at your command."

"Kal," Aelin said with a frustrated growl. "You were supposed to leave."

"I changed my mind. Now, would you like to give me some orders, or shall I do whatever I please?"

Ever the pragmatist, Aelin didn't press further. "Target the star drive. I'll have the others take out the weapons."

"I know you heard that, Jarreau," Kallis said into her communicator. "Bring us around."

Admiral Kaslow had apparently been confident that a single cruiser would be enough to quash this rebellion, as no Astral Corps reinforcements seemed to be forthcoming, and he might have been right had more ships not rushed in from neighbouring systems to come to _Deliverance_ 's aid. Even with her complement of over two hundred guns and a hundred fighters flown by some of the best pilots the academy could produce, the _Aquila_ couldn't stand up to sheer force of numbers.

Kaslow put up a fight to the bitter end, only surrendering once he'd lost over half his fighters and the _Aquila_ was so badly damaged she wasn't about to go anywhere under her own power. It'd been over ten hours since the engagement had begun, with both sides suffering heavy losses.

"Now what?" Kallis asked Aelin once _Zenith_ had returned to _Deliverance_ 's hangar for repairs. "You have to know you can't keep him here. He won't stay quietly."

"I know, that's why I'm having him and his surviving crew transferred to Sigma Three," Aelin said. "It won't hold them for long, especially once word makes it back to Ingeron, so we really need to get on retrieving that star drive."

"I'll do it."

"Do what?"

"I'll get you that star drive."

Aelin looked up from the console she was working at. "What made you change your mind?"

"My duty as a member of the Astral Corps is to protect the citizens of the empire and serve in its best interests. This task conflicts with neither of those tenets."

"My God, I'd almost forgotten you were like this," Aelin muttered.

When Kallis looked over, Aelin was smirking at the console in front of her, like she was trying to hold herself back from breaking into a smile.

-

Kallis broke the news to her crew that night, giving anyone who wanted it the chance to sit out of the upcoming mission. A few opted to do so, but it wasn't something Kallis could hold against them. Theft and potential treason weren't for everyone, after all, even if it was for a good cause.

The raiding party Aelin had put together was scheduled to leave the very next day, and Kallis was surprised to also see Aelin in the hangar, geared up and ready to go.

"What are you doing?" Kallis asked.

"Coming with you, "Aelin said. "Someone's got to be in charge, and you don't even know where we're going."

"You don't think it'd be safer for the ship's captain to stay with the ship?"

"If we don't get this star drive, nowhere will be safe. The Astral Corps already knows we're here, and we won't be able to move away quickly enough if they send more people after us. This star drive is our only hope."

There were fifty of them in the transport ship bound for Hellaron Prime where Wayland was supposedly keeping the star drive. The transport was unarmed and had no shields to make it as unassuming as possible, and Aelin explained to Kallis that they were employing jammers to make the cargo hold look empty when it was scanned.

But once the transport's doors were opened, there was no way to hide that there were fifty of them on board. They came out guns blazing, pulse rifles set to stun to minimise the number of fatalities. It didn't take long to clear the hangar, but an alarm blaring in the background signalled that reinforcements would soon be on their way.

"Kal, you're with me," Aelin said. "We'll head for security while the others create a diversion and fight their way to the drive."

Aelin seemed to know exactly where she was going, leading Kallis up a flight of stairs and through a locked door that she blasted a hole into.

"You seem to be familiar with this place," Kallis said.

"I've spent a long time studying blueprints to prepare for this day," Aelin replied. "I've had my people in Wayland's ranks for months gathering information on his operation."

"If you had some people in imperial ranks, maybe they could've warned you about Kaslow."

"Oh, I do. Kaslow's mission was just so secret that none of them knew about it. And the one person that might have wasn't in a position to hear anything." Aelin gave Kallis a significant look before kicking open the door in front of them and shooting the two pirates inside the room.

"Who?" Kallis demanded, shooting another pirate that had entered the room behind them, drawn in by the commotion.

"It's often the ones right in front of us that we don't see." Aelin gave Kallis another look and raised her eyebrows expectantly.

"Holland?" Kallis blurted out, only half serious.

Aelin made a non-committal noise.

Kallis sputtered incredulously. "He's got to be the most uptight, law-abiding person I know."

"That's what makes him so perfect."

"And you knew this all along?"

"Not exactly. I have over thirty thousand people under my command; I don't know each and every one of them, as much as I'd like to. And the more I show my face to them, the more likely someone will recognise me and news of my whereabouts will get back to my parents. Roth handles most of the recruiting."

"So that meeting on Delta Nine…"

"A mistake on my part. Holland was bringing us information about military movements against some of our protectorates in exchange for Wayland's location, and I thought it would only be polite to meet him in person to thank him for the work he'd been doing. But I didn't have time to look at his personnel file beforehand, otherwise I would've seen your name and not gone to the meeting."

"To be fair, I wasn't supposed to be there. I had another meeting that happened to finish early."

"I'm glad it did. It's been good seeing you." Aelin gave Kallis half a smile, and when Kallis returned it, her smile grew broader.

Gunshots from the floor above reminded them where they were and why they were here.

The diversion seemed to be working, as Kallis and Aelin encountered little resistance beyond locked doors and the occasional pirate as they made their way up to the security station. The station itself was a different matter altogether; it was still fully staffed, with no fewer than six people moving about behind the frosted window in the door. Aelin fired an energy pulse right at the window, but it dissipated harmlessly upon impact.

"We're not going to be able to shoot our way through the door," Kallis said. It was much stronger than the other doors they'd broken through to get here, and could probably only be breached with explosives, which they weren't carrying.

"I know. It's just to make them come out."

Not a minute later, two pirates dressed in full armour carrying huge automatic rifles came out of the station.

"Where did Wayland get _those_?" Aelin hissed.

"I don't think our rifles are going to do much against that armour," Kallis said.

"Not the pulse rifles, maybe, but I brought this." Aelin pulled a kinetic pistol out of her thigh holster. "Eighteen rounds. Not too powerful or flashy, but possibly just the surprise we need."

"You should target the joints where the armour will be the weakest, just to be sure."

"Don't worry, I've been practising."

Aelin _had_ been practising. Kallis saw her get two clean hits to the neck of the pirate closest to them, but the second pirate sent them running with a spray of energy pulses in their direction. They took off back down the corridor, ducking into a break room they'd come through earlier for cover.

"Should we not make it out of here—"

Whatever Aelin had been about to say was cut off by another spray of energy pulses from around the corner.

"Cover me," Aelin said when the barrage slowed.

Kallis leaned out of the doorway and laid down covering fire with her rifle while Aelin came up from underneath and fired several shots up at the pirate. At least one shot connected, and they went down with a heavy thud.

"As I was saying"—Aelin motioned for Kallis to follow her back towards the security station—"if we don't make it out of here, I just want you to know that I never stopped thinking about you. Not in all these years."

"What?"

"Well, not that I was thinking about you all the time, but you crossed my mind every now and again." Aelin stopped to pull the security keycard off one of the fallen pirates' belt. "Do you ever regret leaving Mindar?"

Until yesterday, Kallis would have wholeheartedly said no. For as long as she could remember, she'd wanted to be a part of the Astral Corps, to uphold their mission to protect and serve the empire above all else, and not once in the last ten years had she truly regretted that decision. Now, she had to wonder: just how many of the empire's misdeeds had she wilfully turned a blind eye to?

"I didn't," Kallis eventually said when Aelin continued to wait for a response.

It wasn't much of an answer, but Aelin nodded, apparently satisfied, and continued towards the security station.

The remaining pirates hadn't suited up like the others had, and four pulse rifle blasts took care of them. Aelin went straight to one of the consoles to deactivate the security measures around the star drive while Kallis checked in with Holland, who was leading the team in charge of securing the drive and preparing it for pickup.

"It's all good here, Captain," he said, "looks like catching them by surprise worked. We're outside the hangar now, just waiting for the doors to be unlocked."

"Once our people get in, I'm locking the doors behind them to keep the others out," Aelin said. "I'll try to lock all the other interior doors as well, then I'll open the airfield doors and have Davros there to pick up the drive. Once that's gone, I think it'll get Wayland's attention off the rest of us for a while and let us clean up."

Kallis relayed the plan to Holland then helped Aelin to figure out the security system. It wasn't dissimilar to what she'd seen used on Astral Corps bases. In fact, she would put good money on most of the equipment being stolen from the empire.

"He didn't even change the default override sequence." Aelin tutted as she reset all the codes and input her own. "And he really shouldn't have been such a control freak with all those electronic locks on the doors. Sure, it's easy to control from a single security station, but it really depends on _who_ is manning the station. Don't you agree, Kal?"

"Completely." With great satisfaction, Kallis locked all the doors. It wouldn't hold the pirates off for long, but hopefully long enough for Aelin's backup to arrive and surround the base.

"I have the turrets, the lasers, and the mines," Aelin cheerfully announced. "Davros, you're clear to land."

"Transport inbound," Kallis informed Holland as the airfield doors began to open. "Once the drive is secure, round up Wayland and his enforcers. As for the rest, cut loose those who want to leave, and bring in those who don't."

All that was left for Kallis and Aelin to do was to keep watch on the monitors and use the security measures at their control to keep any of the pirates from escaping until they'd been processed by Holland.

"Look," Aelin said after a few minutes of silence, "once we get out of here, there'll be no reason for you to stay, so I'm just going to do this now before I lose the chance again."

Before Kallis could even try to guess what Aelin was talking about, she'd closed the distance between them, placing a gentle hand on Kallis' cheek and bringing their lips together. Kallis couldn't do anything but stand there, frozen on the spot as her brain tried and failed to process exactly what was happening.

"What was that?" she asked when Aelin finally broke off.

"A kiss. Don't tell me you've never—"

"You know that's not what I meant. Why did you do it?"

Aelin gave a short, incredulous laugh. "I can't believe it. You mean Zeran was right all along?"

"Zeran? Who we went to school with? What does he have to do with this?"

"Remember the spring fair on Mindar, the year before you left? I invited you to the dance with me."

"That—was that a date?"

They used to do everything together, including attending the spring fair dance that Aelin was expected to make an appearance at every year. The last year before they'd graduated, Aelin had specifically asked Kallis to join her at the dance, which Kallis had thought was a little strange since she would be there anyway, but she'd said yes without giving it further thought.

"Wow. I _really_ should've just come out and said it." Aelin gave another incredulous laugh and leaned back on the console. "Zeran told me you wouldn't know it was a date, but I thought you'd be much less oblivious than that. Turns out, he was right, and I was wrong. I really hate that."

"You were asking me out on a date?"

"Yes, we've established that, so now the real question is, would you have stayed if you'd known it was a date?"

"No," Kallis said with absolute certainty. She and Aelin had fought for months—for over a year—about her decision to join the Astral Corps. Kallis had been convinced it was the right move to make, and if her dearest and oldest friend hadn't been able to persuade her otherwise, she doubted anything else would have been able to, even the potential for a more intimate relationship.

"Alright, that makes me feel a bit better," Aelin said. "Would you have said yes if you'd known it was a date?"

"I…" Kallis chewed her bottom lip as she tried to think of words that would adequately convey her feelings. "I've travelled a lot in these last few years. I've met a lot of people. But none of them have ever held a candle to you."

"Is that a yes?" Aelin watched her intently with dark eyes.

Kallis looked away. "It's not appropriate."

"Neither is putting together a ship full of dissidents with the intention of breaking away from the empire to form our own sovereign colony, but you don't see me giving up on it." Aelin leaned into Kallis' space to try and catch her gaze again.

"What do you hope to achieve?" Kallis asked. "If your plan goes well, we'll likely never see each other again, and if it goes poorly, I doubt we'll be permitted to be together."

"Permitted's got nothing to do with it. You should know me better than that. But for now, kiss me one more time? A proper kiss. So that I've a memory to keep when you're gone."

There was so much Kallis wanted to say, so many years of unspoken words that didn't make it into emails and grainy video messages. But instead of saying anything, she reached out to cup Aelin's face in her hands, and drew her in to try and put it all into a kiss. Aelin put her arms around Kallis to pull her in even closer, and they didn't separate until they were both gasping for air.

"Now that's a kiss to remember," Aelin said with a smile.

-

The pirates were taken back to _Deliverance_ so that _Zenith_ could be the one to deliver them back to the imperial court. It wouldn't be as good as offering up the 'insurgents' the emperor had wanted, especially once Kaslow was released and could tell his side of the attack on _Deliverance_ , but Kallis was confident she could still spin that story in a favourable light.

Then Holland approached her the night before they were due to leave, knocking on the door to her room in the apartment they still shared.

"I want to take the fall for what happened with the _Aquila_ ," he said without preamble.

Kallis raised an eyebrow. "Did I miss the start of this conversation?"

"I'll speak to the crew, they'll vouch for you," Holland continued. "There's—"

"You've got family on Ingeron, don't you, Holland?" Kallis cut in when it looked like he was going to ramble on. There was another first; Holland had always been succinct with his words.

"Yes, I do."

"And do they know about your…extra-curricular activities?"

"No."

Kallis nodded thoughtfully. "You know, I was an orphan."

"Captain?" Holland gave her a politely confused look.

"The Mindar colonial government put me into the same boarding school as the princess. For twelve years we were constantly around each other, day in, day out. Went to the same classes, slept in the same dormitory. We were practically siblings." Closer than siblings, Kallis thought as she remembered how Aelin's lips had tasted on hers, but that was a detail Holland didn't need to be privy to. "My point is, she's all the family I've got, really."

Holland's expression didn't change.

"Don't be so quick to throw your life away yet," Kallis said, getting to the point. "Once word gets out that the princess is the one leading the 'insurgence' or whatever they want to call it, a quick call to our old teachers on Mindar will confirm we were friends, and my defection to her side will hardly be news worth reporting. But you, they'll never suspect."

"Are you saying you want me to continue spying on the empire?"

"I'm giving you a way out. From there, I want you to do what you think is right. And with that, consider me officially no longer your commanding officer. I'll give you my resignation letter before you leave, to pass on to Admiral Temir. Now, go get some sleep; you'll have a lot of lies to keep straight in the coming weeks."

-

The next morning, Kallis didn't go to the hangar to watch _Zenith_ leave, but found her way to Aelin's office, and knocked on the door frame.

Aelin's head shot up. "Kal? What are you still doing here? I thought your ship had left."

Kallis shrugged. "It has, along with the crew, Wayland and his enforcers, and my resignation letter."

"Your—"

"You were right. About everything. We've come a long way since mankind first sent a rocket into space, but somewhere since then, we've lost sight of _why_. To explore, to satisfy our curiosity, to go where none have dared go before. Not…this. Not whatever the empire's become. So I suddenly find myself unemployed. You wouldn't know anyone who's hiring, would you?"

"I…might be able to think of a few people." Aelin rounded her desk, and Kallis held her arms out to catch Aelin in an embrace. "I've really missed you," Aelin said with a longing sigh into Kallis' shoulder. "Stay, this time."

Kallis pressed a kiss to the top of Aelin's head. "I love you, Aelin. Above all else. Nothing in the world could take me from your side again."


End file.
